Time of the Dinosaurs
by Cute But Psycho
Summary: Jimmy makes a time freezer and goes to see if it works, but what happens when it malfunctions and lands him and Cindy in the middle of a forest, with no idea where they are? (Jimmy/Cindy) *Chapter 13 is up and the story is done!*
1. The Time Freezer

It was a cool Saturday morning, and Jimmy was down in his lab. He was bent over a desk, muttering to himself. Blueprints and machinery pieces were spread all over the place.   
"Let's see, the structural freezer goes here, then I bolt it into place with this, put the signaler here, the radius calculator here, snap the cover on the front, and there! I'm done!"   
Jimmy held up what looked like a small green remote with a small satellite dish on top. Goddard, who had been recharging, unplugged himself from the recharging station and ran over to Jimmy. He sniffed curiously at the new invention, then looked up at Jimmy.   
"It's a time freezer, Goddard," Jimmy told him. "One push of the button and everything within a 20 mile radius completely freezes, including time itself! Of course, that's assuming I've done my calculations right, but I'm sure I have. Think of the possibilities though, Goddard! We could raid candy stores! We could take money from the bank! Not that we ever would, of course," Jimmy added, seeing the look on Goddard's face. "My inventions must never be used for harm."   
Jimmy turned and headed for the periscope that let him see out into the street.   
"I wonder if anyone's outside. I need to take this for a test run." Jimmy peered out through the periscope. Only one person was outside, his rival/crush (not that he would ever admit the crush part) Cindy Vortex. She was walking her dog down the street. Jimmy got an evil grin on his face.   
"Perfect!" he said to Goddard. "Cindy's outside."   
Goddard gave Jimmy a look that said, "What happened to not using your inventions for harm?"   
"I'm not going to hurt her," Jimmy said. "I'm just going to annoy her a little. Hey Goddard, how mad do you think Cindy would be if I stuck her up on someone's roof?"   
Goddard gave Jimmy a "You have got to be kidding" look.   
"Yeah, you're probably right, she threatened to rip off my legs and make me use them as crutches if I ever did that again…. Well then, I'll just stick her in a tree or something." Jimmy headed for the exit. "See you in a bit!" 

"Hey Cindy!" Jimmy yelled from his front yard. "I think you should take your dog to the hospital. It seems to be growing some kind of undocumented insect larvae out of its neck."   
"Where's your bucket of bolts that you pass off as a dog, Neutron?" Cindy retorted. "Did it try to play dead again? You'd think that someone with such a big head would have the brains to solve the problem."   
"I might remind you, Vortex, than the bug in Goddard's 'play dead' program resulted in you and everyone else being freed from the Yokian's jail cell."   
"I might remind _you_ that it was your fault we were in the cell in the first place!"   
Jimmy decided that now would be a good time to test out the time freezer, seeing as he couldn't think of a good comeback right then. He hit the button labeled "Freeze" on his invention. The satellite dish began to spin. Suddenly there was a flash of white light, which blinded Jimmy momentarily. When it faded Jimmy looked around. He didn't seem to be in his neighborhood or even in Retroville at all. It looked more like he was in the woods. And he didn't seem to have frozen time either. The trees were swaying in the wind. Leaves were falling to the ground. And standing right in front of him was Cindy, who was looking around, as confused, if not more confused, than Jimmy. She spotted Jimmy standing sheepishly in front of her, time freezer in hand.   
"NEUTRON!" she screamed. 


	2. Where Are We?

Jimmy cringed. "Yeah?" he said?   
Cindy took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm down. Then she marched over to Jimmy, stuck her finger in his face, and said, "You have thirty seconds to explain to me where we are and how we got here. Start talking."   
"Well, we're certainly not in Retroville, I can tell you that."   
Cindy rolled her eyes. "I wasn't asking you where we _weren't_. I was asking you where we _were_. And how we got here."   
"Well, we seem to be in the woods, that's all I know. As for how we got here, I'm not entirely sure…." Jimmy trailed off, then took a deep breath and began to talk as fast as he could.   
"You see, I finished my time freezer this morning, so I decided to test it out, and you were the only one around, so I went up to test it on you, I swear I wasn't going to keep you frozen though, I just wanted to see if it worked, anyway I pushed the button, and instead of freezing time it kinda sorta transported us here on accident, wherever this is," he finished.   
Cindy stared at him.   
"Okay, let me see if I've got this straight. You decided to test out one of your inventions on me, but it screwed up – as usual – and we wound up here."   
"Yeah, that's about the gist of it."   
"But everything should be fine, right? I mean, you should just be able to hit the button again and transport us back home."   
Jimmy shook his head. "It's not that simple, Cindy. We have no scientific data to back up the theory that we will be transported home if we push the button. We could be transported to the moon for all we know."   
"I don't care," Cindy said. "Anything's better than sitting around here. I feel like we're being watched," she added with a shiver.   
"I think that we should only push the button as a last resort. I would rather look around and try to gather information about where we are before we-"   
Cindy grabbed the time freezer from Jimmy. "Well, _I_ think we should push the button and see what happens."   
"Cindy, give it back!" Jimmy said. Cindy held it over her head.   
"No way!" she said.   
"Come on!" Jimmy shouted.   
"No!"   
The two of them were so busy fighting that neither of them noticed the large, bird-like animal flying above them. At least, they didn't notice it until it had let out an ear-splitting screech and dove at them, talons extended.   
"Uh-oh," Jimmy said. 


	3. Back in Time

The thing grabbed the time freezer in its talons, lifting not only the time freezer but Cindy as well. Jimmy grabbed onto Cindy's legs, hoping to pull her down but instead getting lifted too. Soon they were high in the air, Jimmy's feet just barely skimming the treetops. A fall from that height would definitely be fatal. And Jimmy was beginning to lose his grip.   
"Come on, think, think, THINK!" he muttered to himself. That's when he saw the tree a few feet in front of them. It was around three feet taller than the others, tall enough, he thought, for Cindy and him to grab a hold of.   
"Cindy!" he shouted.   
"What?"   
"You see that tree, the one that's a couple feet taller than the others?"   
"Yeah."   
"When we pass it, I want you to let go of the time freezer and grab onto it."   
"WHAT? Are you crazy?!"   
"Just do it! If you don't we'll both fall!"   
Cindy didn't argue. They got nearer to the tree.   
"On the count of three," Jimmy said. "One… two… THREE!"   
Cindy let go of the time freezer. There was a terrifying second or two where they started to fall, but Cindy reacted quickly. She reached out and grabbed the tree with both hands, stopping their fall. The two scrambled onto a branch, panting heavily.   
"We're alive!" Cindy said, sounding amazed.   
"Yeah, no thanks to that thing," Jimmy said. "What was it, anyway?"   
"I don't know, I didn't get much of a chance to look at it before it grabbed me," Cindy said. "All I know is that is wasn't like any animal on earth. There are no birds that big on the planet."   
"Unless it was… but it couldn't be, that's not possible…." Jimmy muttered.   
"What?" Cindy asked.   
"I was just thinking out loud, forget it," Jimmy said.   
"Tell me!"   
"Well, okay, but you're not gonna like it…." Jimmy said, taking a deep breath. "I think it might have been a Pterosaur."   
Cindy stared at him, mouth half open. "But… but then that would mean…."   
Jimmy nodded. "We somehow went back in time."   
Cindy looked like she couldn't decide whether to faint or break Jimmy's neck. Thinking that he really didn't like either option, he said, "I could be wrong, though. Maybe there really is a bird that big, and nobody's discovered it. You never know. I mean, this place is totally deserted. There's no people anywhere."   
"Of course it's deserted," Cindy said through gritted teeth. "That's because people don't exist yet!"   
"Just calm down, okay?" Jimmy said. "I'm probably wrong. I mean, that flying… thing is the only thing we've seen to suggest that we might have gone back in time."   
"Yeah, you're right," Cindy said, sighing. "Sorry."   
The two sat in silence for a moment just looking around. Then Cindy gasped and grabbed Jimmy's arm.   
"Oh man…." she said.   
"What?" Jimmy asked.   
She pointed. Way down below, in the field that surrounded the woods, was a pack of very large, and very real, dinosaurs. 


	4. Cretaceous Period

"Triceratops," Jimmy said.   
"No kidding, genius," Cindy said sarcastically.   
"So I guess that answers the whole question of whether or not we went back in time."   
"I think I prefer the 'being stuck in the middle of nowhere' scenario over the 'being stuck in the middle of nowhere with dinosaurs" scenario."   
"Yeah, me too."   
"Jimmy, what are we going to _do_?" Cindy asked. "I mean, that time freezer thing is gone, and it'll be millons of years before people even come into existence, much less invent electricity. It's not as if you can just whip up something to transport us back to our time."   
Jimmy sighed. "I know, I _know_." He looked down at his feet. "I suppose you want to kill me now."   
"I admit, that does sound like an appealing idea," Cindy said, "but we've got to stick together, and we can't exactly stick together if you're dead. So I'm not going to kill you until we get back home."   
"Provided something else doesn't kill me first," Jimmy said. He meant it as a joke, but somehow it came out sounding a lot more serious than he meant it to. There was a heavy silence as they both thought about what they had gotten into.   
"Man, Jimmy, we're really in deep, aren't we?" Cindy asked.   
"Yeah, we are," Jimmy said, sighing. "I never meant for something like this to happen. I was just trying to have a little fun."   
A breeze blew past and both of them shivered. Jimmy looked up at the sky, which was beginning to darken.   
"It's almost night," Jimmy said. "Where are we going to sleep?"   
"I don't even like the idea of sleeping in a place full of dinosaurs," Cindy said. "But we have to sleep sometime, I guess."   
"Maybe we can climb down the tree a ways and see if there's any place we could sleep. Maybe we can find some branches that are spread out just enough to lie down in."   
"Sleep in a _tree_?" Cindy said.   
"Would you rather sleep on the ground and be attacked by something?"   
"No."   
"Then this is the only other choice we have."   
Cindy sighed. "All right then."   
Jimmy and Cindy began to climb down the tree, bit by bit. They didn't talk much as they climbed down. Neither of them were really in the mood to talk. About halfway down the tree, Jimmy found three long branches in a sort of cradle shape, and lacking any place better to sleep, decided to try and sleep there. Luckily, they were both kind of short, so they fit. It took them a while to get comfortable (after all, they were in a tree), but they finally got comfortable enough to where they could at least try to fall asleep, provided that they were able to forget about the fact that they had gone back over 65 million years in time and were surrounded by dinosaurs with absolutely no way to get home. After saying their goodnights, they both rolled over to sleep.   
Jimmy felt horrible. He had just been trying to have a little fun with an invention, and instead had gotten himself, and worse, Cindy, into the worst trouble either of them had ever been in. He could hear her sobbing a tiny bit, though she was obviously trying to keep it quiet so that Jimmy wouldn't hear, which just made him feel even worse. Even if he did argue with her all the time, he would never intentionally hurt her, not badly, anyway, and he would never want to make her cry or anything. Even if she was a girl, she wasn't that bad. She had been the only one who was nice to him after they had all found out that Jimmy was the reason their parents were kidnapped, and she had tried to cheer him up too. And how did he repay her? By getting her stuck in the time of the dinosaurs. He wondered vaguely what period it was. Well, he had seen flowers and the herd of Triceratops, both of which didn't come along until the last period, the Cretaceous Period. _Ah_, he thought. _The Cretaceous Period. Okay then_.   
Jimmy yawned and squirmed, trying to get comfortable. He was dead tired, but for some reason the words _Cretaceous Period_ kept buzzing around in his brain, like an annoying fly that wouldn't let him sleep till he swatted it. He couldn't understand what was wrong. So it was the Cretaceous Period. So what? It had dinosaurs just like the other periods. Triceratops, Iguanodon, Alamosaurus, Tyrannosaurus Rex…. He sat bolt upright. Of course! The Cretaceous Period was the time of the most deadly predator ever to live, the T-Rex! _Not good_, Jimmy thought, _not good at all_…   
Jimmy heard what sounded like a small explosion in the distance. Then another. And another. Each one seeming to get closer and closer. And Jimmy had a pretty good idea of what that noise was. He reached over and shook Cindy's shoulder, eyes wide with fear.   
"Wake up," he said in an urgent whisper.   
"What is it?" Cindy mumbled, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. She had apparently been able to get to sleep. "What's wrong?"   
"I think we're in very big trouble," Jimmy told her. "Very, VERY big trouble." 


	5. Safe

Cindy opened her mouth to ask what was going on, but before she could say anything there was another loud BOOM followed by an earth-shattering roar.   
"Is that what I think it-" she started to say, but Jimmy interrupted her by tugging on her arm and beginning to scramble down the tree.   
"Come on!" he shouted. "We have to put as much distance as we can between ourselves and that thing!"   
Tired as she was, Cindy found herself climbing down the tree after Jimmy. It only took them a couple minutes to get down the tree, but it felt longer. Time always seems to go slower when you're scared.   
The last branch was about six feet above the ground. Jimmy took a breath, then jumped. He landed kind of funny and felt a sharp pain shoot through his ankle, but he ignored it. Right then the main concern was making sure that he and Cindy got as far away from where the T-Rex was as possible.   
Cindy jumped down from the tree. Jimmy grabbed her hand and they began to run. Jimmy couldn't believe that he was actually running, given the fact that he hadn't slept at all and was dead tired.   
"Jimmy," Cindy asked as they ran, "exactly where are we going?"   
"I'm not sure," he said. "Just look around for a cave or something, one that's got a low ceiling and that extends really far back so that if Mr. Rex back there gets up here and smells us, he won't be able to get us."   
"Oh, come on Jimmy," Cindy said. "What are the odds of us finding something like-"   
They turned a corner and suddenly found themselves standing in front of a cave with a low ceiling and that seemed to go pretty far back.   
"-that," Cindy finished. "Well, what're the odds of this happening?"   
"We'd better check to see if it's occupied first, but I think this'll work," Jimmy said.   
They walked in slowly, calling out so that if anything was in the cave, sleeping, it would wake up and warn them, hopefully, anyway. After a full exploration of the cave, which didn't take too long since the cave wasn't all that big, Jimmy and Cindy found that there wasn't anything living in the cave, anything that could be considered a threat in any case.   
"Well, the cave seems to be unoccupied," Jimmy said.   
"Unless the resident is out on a lunch break," Cindy said.   
Jimmy shook his head. "I don't think so. The cave is empty. If there was anything living in here we'd be able to tell. There'd be signs of life. A nest, some bits of food, something."   
"I think we should build a fire, just in case," Cindy said.   
"That wouldn't be such a bad idea," Jimmy said. "It would keep most animals away, and we could keep warm too. We'll have to do it the old-fashioned way, though. I'll go get the sticks. You stay here. That way, if I run into Mr. Rex out there, at least you'll be safe." He turned and began to walk off.   
"Jimmy, what's wrong with your leg?" Cindy said. Jimmy turned around.   
"What do you mean?" he asked.   
"You're limping…."   
"I am?" he asked, surprised. It was then that he remembered that he had hurt his ankle jumping from the tree. He had completely forgotten about it. Suddenly all the pain rushed back. He cringed a little.   
"What happened?" she asked.   
"I hurt it jumping from the tree…."   
"Does it still hurt?"   
"A little," he lied.   
"Let me see," she said.   
"No, really, I'm fine," he protested.   
"Jimmy Neutron, sit down and let me look at your leg," she said. He reluctantly obeyed. Cindy came over and sat down, leaning over his ankle.   
"Jimmy, it's all swollen!" she cried. "Why didn't you mention it earlier?"   
"We were running from a T-Rex. I didn't think it was an appropriate time to mention it."   
"Then why didn't you mention it once we were in here?"   
"It's no big deal," Jimmy said dismissively.   
"Jimmy, your ankle is swollen. It's probably broken. It's a big deal."   
"There's nothing we can do about it!" Jimmy said, getting a little annoyed. "Listen, humans won't be around for millions of years. It's not as if we could just go to the nearest doctor."   
"Well, at least let me put a splint on it or something."   
Jimmy sighed. "You're as bad as my mom. Fine, I'll put a splint on it."   
Cindy stood up. "I'll go get the sticks for the fire and some sticks for your splint. You stay here. Don't get up, it'll make it worse."   
"But-" Jimmy started to say, trying to stand up.   
"Sit down! You are not allowed to protest. I'll be right back," she said, and left. 


	6. Thoughts

When Cindy got back Jimmy was asleep on the cave floor. She smiled to herself. Half of her wanted to wake him up so they could put the splint on, but she decided to let him sleep for a while, at least until she could get the fire going. She set down the sticks and dried leaves and grass that she had gathered to start the fire. She made a small nest of dry grass, twigs, and other things, then drilled a rough hole in a stick with a sharp rock. Just as she was preparing to try and start the fire, she heard a movement. Holding up a stick, she looked around the cave. _Oh, yeah Cindy_, she thought. _Like a stick is going to do any good against a dinosaur_. She took another look around, and lowered the stick when she realized that the movement was just Jimmy rolling over in his sleep. Smiling to herself, she got ready to try and start the fire again, but her eyes traveled back to Jimmy and she set the sticks down.   
**Can't keep your eyes off him, huh?**   
Cindy jumped when she heard the voice, and at first she thought that there was someone else in the cave, until she realized that it was the stupid little voice in her head, the one that seemed to pop up whenever her guard was down.   
_Not you again_, she thought. Thinking to it was better than talking out loud to it, because A: she'd look really dumb, carrying on a conversation with someone invisible, and B: she might wake Jimmy up, and then she'd look dumb in front of him, which was even worse.   
**Yes, it's me again.**   
_Must you pop up whenever I'm not expecting you?_   
**If I popped up whenever you were expecting me, it would get really boring. Popping up when you don't expect me to is more fun, because I get to annoy you. Besides, when you're not expecting me it's easier to talk some sense into you.**   
_You call it talking sense into me?_   
**Either that or 'opening your eyes.' Whichever you prefer. Anyway, it's not my fault. If you would just quit denying it, I might go away.**   
_Denying what?_   
**Ah, denying that you're even denying it in the first place. Classic symptoms. Do you see why I need to work with you?**   
_If you'd just let me know what you're talking about, I might._   
**Must we go through this every time? You know what I'm talking about, you know you do, so don't say you don't.**   
_I don't. Not my fault._   
**You're stubborn today, aren't you? Listen, you know why I'm here. You must, otherwise you wouldn't have recognized me. You just don't want to admit that you know why I'm here, because you figure that I'll leave if you play dumb, but that won't work. I know you better than you know yourself.**   
_That's not fair. You're not supposed to know about my plots to get you to leave._   
**Well, I do. So anyway, what's new? Been staring at Jimmy recently?**   
_I wasn't staring at him! I just… looked up momentarily, that's all._   
**Excuses, excuses. Well, okay, maybe you weren't that time. But what about the time when you were going to rescue the parents and you were flying through space? There was some definite staring there. Or last week, in class, when the teacher was giving that lesson on the Amazon? You stared at him throughout the whole lesson.**   
_Not the whole lesson!_   
**Okay, so you stopped to take notes. Big deal.**   
_Are you going to even say anything useful, or are you just going to debate with me over whether or not I was staring at Jimmy in class one day?_   
**This is new. You actually want me to say my usual bit.**   
_I want you to say it so that I can deny it, you can say 'if you say so' and leave, and I can go back to what I was doing._   
**Staring at Jimmy?**   
_No! Building a fire._   
**If you say so. Anyway, here goes. I think you should tell Jimmy how you feel, because you like him, and everyone knows it.**   
_Now it's my turn to say my part. You're crazy, we're enemies, we fight all the time, why would I like him, etcetera. You know what, this gets really boring after a couple hundred times. Can't you just leave?_   
**Well, it wouldn't even keep happening if you would just listen to me, because you know I'm right. And I can't leave until you do what I want you to.**   
_And I can't do what you want me to because you're crazy and you have a really distorted view of reality. Besides, even if I did like him, what would happen if I said that I did? My rep would be totally screwed up._   
**Everyone knows already, and your reputation seems to still be intact. Besides, reputations are highly overrated.**   
_If everyone knows already, then that means he knows too. There! Mission accomplished. You can leave._   
**I meant everyone except him. Anyway, even if he did, it still wouldn't count because you have to say it.**   
_Figures._   
**There's gotta be a way to get you to say it. Let's see…. Oh, I know! The simplest, yet most efficient way: the chant. Say it! Say it! Say it! Say it! Say it! Say it!**   
_Will you stop that?_   
**Nope. Say it! Say it! Say it!**   
_That is really, really, annoying._   
**I know. Say it! Say it! Say it! Say it!**   
"Will you cut that out!" Cindy shouted. She then realized that she'd yelled that out loud and covered her mouth, glancing over at Jimmy. He stirred a little but didn't wake up. Cindy sighed, relieved.   
_Now look what you did! He almost woke up! And he's hurt too._   
**Me? You're the one who yelled. And it sounds like someone has a crush….**   
_I do not! And as for the yelling thing, it was your fault that I yelled. Can't you leave me alone for now? In case you haven't noticed, we're stuck in the Cretaceous Period with a T-Rex, probably more than one, come to think of it, and we have absolutely no way to get home!_   
**Okay, okay, I'm going. But one last piece of advice. What if he – or you – gets killed, and you never get to tell him? Like you said, there are a lot of T-Rex around here.**   
With that he (or it, really) was gone, leaving Cindy by herself to think about everything that had just been said. 


	7. Fights and Hugs

Jimmy sat up and looked around. There was light flooding into the cave, which meant that he had slept through the night. A small fire was burning. Cindy had obviously gotten it started. He looked around for Cindy and found her sleeping a few feet away from the fire. The light from the fire spilled onto her and made it look like she was glowing. Some of her hair was falling into her eyes, and for a minute he had a crazy urge to brush it out of her face, but he shook it off.   
Jimmy climbed to his feet and gritted his teeth. He had forgotten all about his hurt ankle. For a minute he thought about sitting back down, but his stomach growled and he decided to go look for some food. Keeping as quiet as possible, he started to limp past Cindy.   
"Where do you think you're going, Neutron?"   
Jimmy jumped slightly and turned around. Cindy was sitting up, looking at him disapprovingly.   
"Cindy! You're awake!" he said, surprised. "I thought you were asleep."   
"I saw you wake up and I knew you'd try to sneak out, so I pretended to be asleep so that I could catch you if you tried to leave," Cindy told him. "Now sit down. I told you not to stand on your leg. And you still haven't answered my question."   
Jimmy knew it was pointless to argue with her while she was in this mood, so he sat down.   
"I was just going to get some food," he told her. "I was hungry."   
"We're both hungry," Cindy said. "And you could have at least woken me up, I can go with you, you know."   
"What would be the point of waking you up? You were already awake! And it's dangerous out there. Mr. Rex isn't the only meat eating dinosaur out there, there's Deinonychus' out there, and other things…."   
"You didn't know I was awake, though, did you?" Cindy said. "And geez, you act like I'm helpless. At least I can run. You're ankle's hurt. You'd be toast. Besides, you let me go out last night to find firewood."   
"I didn't have much of a choice, did I? You wouldn't let me get a word in edgewise. It's not like I wanted you out there. You don't know what could have been out there, you could have been attacked by a Didelphodon or something…."   
Cindy looked liked she was about to burst out laughing.   
"Jimmy, you of all people should know what Didelphodons eat, you're a genius, after all!" Cindy said. "Didelphodons eat insects, small reptiles, eggs and carrion, duh."   
"Well, people aren't exactly well-known, are they? It could've gotten curious and attacked you," Jimmy said defensively.   
"I don't think so. It probably would've thought I was some new dinosaur and left me alone. Didelphodons didn't like to tangle with dinosaurs. Sit down!" Cindy said, as Jimmy started to get up again.   
"But I need to go get food, we'll starve otherwise," he protested.   
"I can go get the food, then. You stay here and watch the fire."   
"But I don't want you to go out there, something might happen to you."   
"Something's more likely to happen to you than to me, you're injured, I'm not. I can run, you can't. Get my picture?"   
"I get it, but I don't like it," Jimmy said. "I'm going out to find some food, and you stay here where it's safe." He got to his feet again, wincing slightly when he stood on his injured leg, and started to limp out.   
"Jimmy, stop being stubborn and sit down," Cindy said. Jimmy ignored her. "Jimmy Neutron, get back here!" He still wouldn't listen, and kept walking. Cindy had half a mind to pick him up, carry him back and force him to sit down, but she knew he probably weighed about as much as her, so that wouldn't work. Sighing she stood up and walked over to him, grabbing his arm to stop him. "Jimmy, listen." He tried to pull away. "James Isaac Neutron, listen to me!" That startled Jimmy and he turned around to face her.   
"Look, don't be mad. I just don't want anything to happen to you. If you got killed or seriously hurt or something I'd… I'd…. Listen, you're hurt and if something was to start chasing you, you'd be in trouble. At least I have full use of both my legs and could possibly escape. And remember what we said, we have to stick together. We're in serious trouble otherwise. So please, just sit down and let me go out and find food. Then when I get back I can make you a splint and you'll be able to walk easier. Okay?"   
Jimmy sighed. Cindy was right. "Okay," he said.   
"Are you still mad?" Cindy asked.   
Jimmy thought for a second. He wasn't really. "No," he said.   
Cindy smiled. "Good," she said. "I'll be back in a couple minutes." She turned to leave.   
"Hey Cindy?" Jimmy called.   
"Yeah?" she asked, turning around.   
"I… I… you be careful, okay?" he said   
"I will," she told him.   
"Promise?" he asked.   
"Promise," she said. She turned around again, then hesitated for a second and turned back around. Before Jimmy could wonder what she was doing, she ran over to him, hugged him, and ran out of the cave. 


	8. Earthquakes and Earthsplits

"I got some berries that I recognized from a book, they're not poisonous, and I saw some Triceratops eating these berries, so they should be safe too…."   
Cindy laid out a bunch of berries on some big leaves so that they wouldn't get sick from whatever was on the cave floor. It seemed okay enough, but they had no idea what had lived in that cave before they got there.   
Jimmy stared wide-eyed at the berries. No food had ever looked so good to him, but he supposed that when you're starving and millions of years from home anything looked good.   
Cindy began to divide up the berries, giving one to Jimmy, one to herself, one to Jimmy, one to herself, back and forth until all the berries were gone. The each held one up and hit them together as kind of a cheers, but before they could start eating a huge tremor ran through the ground. They looked at each other, surprised.   
"What was that?" Cindy asked.   
"I dunno, felt like an earthquake or something…."   
The ground began to shake again.   
"I think it is an earthquake!" Jimmy said, excited.   
"Wonderful, just what we need," Cindy said.   
"This is great," Jimmy said. "It really is!"   
"May I ask why?" Cindy said.   
"Because, earthquakes occurred most often during the middle of the Cretaceous period. Continents were beginning to form, mountain ranges were appearing, that sort of thing."   
"So?"   
"So? If we're in the middle of the Cretaceous Period, that means that the comet that wiped out the dinosaurs won't be around for another few million years."   
"Great. Instead of getting killed by a comet, we're gonna get killed by a bunch of earthquakes," Cindy said.   
Jimmy opened his mouth to say something, but at that moment the ground started to shake, about three times harder than it had a couple minutes ago. A couple of small rocks dislodged from the cave roof, and one hit Cindy on the head.   
"Ow!" Cindy yelped.   
"Um, Cindy? I don't think this place is safe anymore," Jimmy said, as quite a large chunk of rock landed next to him.   
"I think you might be right," she said nervously. She helped Jimmy up and then grabbed his arm and started to run, half-dragging him out of the cave. The ground was still shaking, making it very hard to keep their balance, but they made it out, and not a moment too soon. The cave caved in right as they ran out of it. The two of them stared at the pile of rubble in front of them.   
"One second longer and we'd have been toast," Jimmy said.   
"No kidding," Cindy said.   
Jimmy looked around at all the trees surrounding them. "I don't think we should hang around in here anymore. If those 'quakes start up again, those trees could fall over right on top of us."   
Cindy nodded. "Good idea. But first," she added, as Jimmy started to stand, "we're putting a splint on your leg."   
Jimmy groaned a little but didn't say anything. He wasn't about to start another fight. Cindy scanned the area and found a couple of sturdy sticks, both about the same height. She picked them up, then walked over and sat down by Jimmy.   
"I think these should do, they seem pretty sturdy and all. The only problem is that we don't have anything to tie them to your leg with, unless you've got a belt." Jimmy shook his head. "Then we'll have to use my hair bands, which will work, I guess, but they won't keep everything very still. They'll have to do, though."   
Cindy pulled her hair bands out, then set them down. She ran her fingers through her hair quickly, trying to get it to lay flat. When she was done her hair was pretty much straight, except for a little wave showing that it had been up in pigtails. It was fairly long, going to a little past her shoulders. Jimmy tried to keep from staring. He had never seen her with her hair down before, and it looked really good, not that he would _ever_ tell her that, of course.   
"Okay, you're going to have to stand up, and you might have to move your ankle around a little, so be ready. If I hurt you, I'm sorry," she said, helping him to his feet. "Now, I'm going to need to take off your shoe first, because it'll be too hard to get the hair bands on otherwise."   
Cindy untied his shoe, loosened the laces and tried to slide it off without hurting him, though she thought she felt him wince a little.   
"Okay, now I need you to hold these two sticks in place, and keep your foot lifted a little too, so that I can get the hair bands on, this might hurt a little bit, I'm sorry about that…."   
Cindy slid one of the hair bands onto Jimmy's leg and wrapped it around three times, then slid it up toward the top of the sticks. She did the same thing with the other hair band, except left it toward the bottom. She then put his shoe back on, tied it, and sat back to look at her handiwork.   
"It's definitely not hospital material, but it'll hold," she said. "Does it feel okay? It doesn't hurt or anything, does it?"   
"No, it's fine," Jimmy lied. It did hurt a little, but he wasn't going to tell her that.   
"You're sure?" Cindy said.   
"Yeah," Jimmy replied.   
Cindy gave him a look, she knew he was lying but she didn't want to say anything.   
"Come on," Jimmy said, "we'd better get out of here before the earthquakes start aga-"   
He was cut off by a rumbling beneath their feet.   
"Wow, I'm psychic!" he joked.   
"This is no time for jokes, Jimmy, let's get out of here!" Cindy said, starting to run. Jimmy followed her. It was a little hard to keep up because of the splint, but he was able to. The only problem was, they had no idea where they were going. Getting out of the forest was easier said than done.   
"What is this, the never-ending forest?" Cindy complained.   
"It can't be that much farther," Jimmy said.   
"I sure hope not, I'm sick of running," Cindy said, just as they ran into a large field. Only it wasn't really a field, because there was no grass or anything. It was just all dirt.   
"Wow, quite the landscape change," commented Jimmy.   
"No kidding. But at least out here there's nothing that can fall on us," Cindy said.   
"Yeah, we're safe out here," Jimmy said. "At least, I hope so."   
Another earthquake started up again. In the distance, Jimmy and Cindy could hear a loud crack and a thud.   
"Sounds like one of those trees fell," Cindy said.   
There was another loud crack, this one much closer, and the ground began to split. The crack went right between Jimmy and Cindy, and then began to get wider and deeper.   
"Jimmy, jump over here!" Cindy yelled, trying to be heard above the cracking and rumbling.   
Jimmy leapt, but his foot caught on a root and he fell. Meanwhile, the crack was still widening, and it was now too large for either of them to jump across. Jimmy stood up and looked across the gap, some of the ground on Cindy's side was beginning to crumble and Cindy was having to run around to keep from falling off.   
The ground beneath Jimmy's feet began to loosen and fall away. Jimmy backed up to keep from falling with it. When it didn't stop, he turned and ran until finally the cracking noises stopped. Turning around, he surveyed the damage. The crack was huge, he couldn't see the end of it, and also very deep. There were some islands in it, and a whole bunch of trees from the forest had fallen into it. He couldn't see any way across it or around it. Oh well, it wasn't like anything important was over there….   
"Oh man, Cindy's over there!" he exclaimed, slapping his forehead. "I totally forgot!"   
He sighed. This was great. Just perfect. The only other human on the entire earth was on the other side of the crack. And he was responsible for her, too. He'd been the one who got her into the whole mess. _Well_, he thought, _I'd better start looking for a way across_. 


	9. Wondering and Wandering

A/N: Sorry this took so incredibly long! See, first I was eaten by my French cows, and then this herd of cherry-flavorted pistachios chased me down a mountain, and then I fell into an upside-down waterfall, and... you guys aren't buying any of this, are you? I didn't think so. Okay, the reason it took me so long is because I had writer's block, plain and simple. A BIG writer's block. More like a writer's wall. So I had to write a bunch of other stuff to break it, and I just finally now broke through. So here's chapter 9, and sorry for taking so long! 

  


"Jimmy? Where are you? Can you hear me?" Cindy called. No answer. She sighed. She'd been searching for what seemed like hours, and there was still no sign of Jimmy. She was starting to get worried. It was getting dark, and who knew what came out at night? Also, there was no place to hide if anything did come out. She wasn't worried so much for herself as for Jimmy. Even with the splint it still wasn't easy for him to run. What if something happened to him?   
She sighed. She couldn't worry about that now. Right now, the most important thing was to look for him, and find him. Besides, he was Jimmy Neutron, for crying out loud. He was the one who had saved their parents from a three-eyed space chicken and a bunch of space eggs. He'd be okay, she was sure of it.   
Her stomach growled and she realized then that she hadn't eaten in close to two days. The earthquake had hit before she could get any of the berries in her mouth. And here she was, in the middle of nowhere, with the only change in scenery being the huge crack caused by the earthquake. Where was she going to find anything to eat? Suddenly she remembered something. The crack had gone through the forest, and a lot of the trees and bushes had fallen into it. Maybe there were some berry bushes down there. But how to get down there? Maybe she could find somewhere to climb down. Crawling slowly over to the crack, she peered in. The height made her a little dizzy, but she tried to ignore it and looked around instead for a spot with enough footholds for her to climb down. She could see a spot on the other side, but that wouldn't help. She needed somewhere to climb down on this side. Looking up and down the side of the crack, she noticed a spot a few yards down that was very jagged with a lot of footholds, and kind of sloped a little as well. She could probably climb down that, though the idea didn't thrill her. But what else could she do? The crack was probably the safest place, because the forest was probably packed with dinosaurs. Plus, that was where they had heard the T-Rex. Sighing resignedly, she took a deep breath and began to climb down. She kept reminding herself to be extremely careful, because if she fell, there was no one to help her. The thought of falling from such a height made her nauseous, but it kept her going as well. The more she thought of it, the quicker she climbed down. Eventually, she made it to the bottom without incident. Her knees trembled as she began to head down the crack. She had never been so happy to stand on terra firma.   
After wandering down the crack for what seemed like forever, Cindy came to a large pile of trees, bushes, dirt, and other things. It was hard to pick out a berry bush in the growing darkness, especially down in a crack, but Cindy managed to do it somehow. The berries were the same kind as the ones that she and Jimmy had been about to eat earlier. A lot of the berries were smashed or dirty, but she managed to find quite a few that were still good.   
Cindy shivered as a rush of wind blew past her, and she looked up. The sky was a deep, velvet blue, and millions and millions of tiny little stars were scattered across it. She couldn't remember ever seeing so many stars in her life, except for when they were out in space. But when it came to being on Earth and seeing stars, this was the most she had ever seen, and it was absolutely beautiful.   
A loud yawn escaped her, and her eyelids began to feel heavy. She found a tree where she could get nestled into the leaves, and lay back, looking up at the sky. Looking at the stars, she remembered the time that they had gone to rescue the parents, and were flying through space. 

~*~Flashback~*~ 

_"The wonders of the universe," Cindy heard Jimmy say to Goddard. "We are witnessing celestial events no person – or dog," Jimmy added, as Goddard gave him a look, "-has ever seen."   
Cindy was so captivated by the beauty of it all that she didn't really notice where she was flying her ship, though she supposed she knew subconsciously what she was doing.   
"It's incredible," she said softly. She looked over at Jimmy, halfway surprised to see him there, but halfway not. She smiled at the amazed look on his face, and was a little shocked when he caught her eye and smiled back. For a moment she just stared at him. She wasn't entirely sure why, she just did. Perhaps it was because she was so shocked that they were actually being civil to each other, or perhaps it was because she… nah, that couldn't be it.   
Suddenly Jimmy got a look on his face and looked quickly away from her, making a noise as if he was disgusted. She gasped, a little surprised, but in the back of her mind she had known that something like that was coming, and so she looked away too, then turned her attention quickly to Nick. She wasn't sure exactly why she always turned her attention to Nick when Jimmy was around – to make him jealous, maybe? But then that would mean… and she didn't… did she? She shook her head, confused, but didn't have much time to dwell on the subject as something flew past, almost hitting her and Libby's ship. She heard Jimmy call out orders as she began to pilot her ship through the meteors._

~*~End flashback~*~ 

Cindy wished she knew where Jimmy was. She'd feel a lot safer if he was with her. Not only safer for her, but safer for him, as well. She couldn't help remembering that he was hurt, and no matter how much she tried, she couldn't shake the feeling that something would happen to him.   
"Oh Jimmy, where are you?" Cindy asked quietly into the darkness. 

  


A/N: Oh baby! Yeah! Finally done! Now there's just four chapters left to go, and only three of them I have to write (I've already written the last chapter, chapter 13). And now that I've got this chapter done, I should be able to get the others out fairly quickly. BUT... the story probably won't be finished until the end of August/beginning of September because I'm going to be at camp from the 19-24 of this month. There is, of course, the possibility that I can finish the story before then, but I doubt it, because I have to share the computer with 5 other people, and I'll be gone all of Saturday (I'm going paintballing for the first time! Wooooo!). So there is a small chance I may be able to finish the entire story before the 19th, but don't get your hopes up. 


	10. The Reunion

A/N: Here's Chapter 10! BTW, I now have the entire story done! I finished writing it at camp. It might take a while for me to get it up, though, because I have to type it and format it as well. 

  


"Cindy? Cindy? Where are you?" Jimmy yelled, glancing up at the sky. It was a deep periwinkle with a hint of pink and dotted with the beginnings of stars. The sun was yellowish-orange and just beginning to sink beyond the horizon. If he wanted to find Cindy, he'd have to do it fast, because it was going to be dark soon. He had maybe an hour at most.   
"Cindy!"   
He sighed, worried. Where could she be?   
_Duh, Jimmy,_ he thought.   
There had to be some way to get from his side of the crack to Cindy's side. But how? He looked around, scanning the area for any fallen trees that spanned the width of the crack. No such luck. It looked like the only way to get across was to climb down, then climb back up. But he couldn't do that with his ankle in the shape it was. He touched the splint. Cindy's hair bands were holding up pretty well. He smiled, remembering how worried she had been when she found out his ankle was hurt. She hadn't shown him that kind of worry very often, but he could remember one instance very clearly…. 

~*~Flashback~*~ 

_Jimmy sat quietly in his cell, listening to the others fight. His fault. It was all his fault they were stuck here. Him and his stupid curiosity.   
"Jimmy? You there?"   
It was Cindy. Jimmy instinctively braced himself for whatever insults were coming, but subconsciously he realized that Cindy's voice didn't sound taunting. It sounded more… caring?   
"Look, don't listen to them. They're just scared." She paused. "Are you okay?"   
Jimmy was confused. Was that_ Cindy _talking? He sniffed back a couple tears, not wanting to cry in front of his rival.   
"Yeah, I'm fine," he said, trying to sound convincing, but a waver in his voice gave away his lie.   
"Don't be so hard on yourself," she told him. "We'll get out of this."   
Jimmy didn't say anything. Easy for her to say. She wasn't the one who had caused their parents to be kidnapped by giant space eggs.   
Cindy seemed to know what he was thinking.   
"So you made a mistake. Beating yourself up isn't going to fix anything. You know," Cindy began, taking a breath, "I was the smartest kid in school until you came along. And… I admit you know more about some things than I do. But I know one thing that you don't seem to get, and that's that we're never getting out of here without you. So why don't you buck up, mister, and put that big brain of yours back to work. Nick can handle the fighting stuff, but first we have to get out of this cell."   
Jimmy was in total and complete shock. Was Cindy actually talking to him without making fun of him like she always did? If so, why? He decided to ask.   
"Cindy? Why're… why're you being so nice to me?"   
"Because there's a bunch of kids in here that need you." After a moment's hesitation, she added, "And I do, too."   
Jimmy blinked. Cindy being nice and saying that she needed him, that she needed his help? What was going on with her? Did she… did she_ like _him? No, that was impossible… wasn't it? But now wasn't the time to think about that. He had to think up an escape._

~*~End flashback~*~ 

Jimmy shook his head, clearing his mind of the memory. What in the world made him think of that? Stupid irrelevant thought trains. He had to take one in the middle of searching. _Now it's too late,_ Jimmy thought, looking up at the sky, which was almost black. _I'll never find Cindy in this darkness. Even with the moon and stars it's still pitch black._   
Jimmy yawned, realizing for the first time how tired he was. Not even paying attention to where he was, he lay down on the ground and fell asleep. 

Cindy stretched and yawned, her limbs stiff from sleeping on nothing but some leaves. She blinked a couple times, trying to clear her vision, then stood up.   
"Jimmy?" she asked, before remembering that Jimmy was lost. She knew that Jimmy couldn't have climbed down with his leg in the condition it was, so she'd have to climb back up. She really, _really_ wasn't in the mood to climb, but she knew that if she wanted to find Jimmy – and she did want to find him, she wanted to a lot – then she would have to climb. Sighing resignedly, she searched for somewhere that she could get a decent grip and climb up. Luckily, she found a spot and climbed up without incident. But when she reached the top, quite a shock met her.   
"Jimmy?!" she gasped.   
Sure enough, Jimmy was curled up on the ground, fast asleep. Cindy walked slowly toward Jimmy and shook his shoulder softly. Jimmy stirred and sat up, blinking.   
"Hmm?" Jimmy mumbled, looking around.   
"Jimmy! You're okay!" Cindy cried, throwing her arms around him.   
**Heh heh heh. Looks like I was right, doesn't it?**   
_Stupid voice,_ Cindy thought, blushing bright red and letting go of Jimmy.   
"Hey Cindy," Jimmy said, blushing a little as well. "Didja miss me?"   
"Of course not! Well, okay… maybe just a little," Cindy told him, grinning sheepishly.   
"You're a bad liar," Jimmy said. Cindy stuck her tongue out at him, unable to come up with a retort.   
BOOM.   
"What was that?" Cindy asked, glad for the distraction.   
BOOM.   
"I might be wrong, but I believe that our friend Mr. Rex is back," Jimmy said. Cindy decided that maybe she didn't like the distraction so much anymore.   
CRASH.   
The T-Rex emerged from the forest, some sixty yards away. It let out a roar, sniffed the air and charged straight at Jimmy and Cindy. The two looked at each other.   
"Run!" they both shouted. 


	11. The Chase

A/N: Here's chapter 11! The shortest chapter ever! Go me! 

  


Cindy started to run, but stopped when she noticed that Jimmy was having a hard time keeping up. Grabbing his hand, she pulled him along, the T-Rex gaining with every step.   
"Cindy… we can't outrun him… Tyrannosaurus Rex can run up to thirty miles an hour," Jimmy panted as they ran.   
"Now isn't the time to think about that Jimmy, just keep running!" Cindy said. They did, but they knew it was no use. The T-Rex just kept gaining.   
Jimmy's foot hit a rock and he tripped, causing Cindy to trip also. Panicked, Cindy got up and helped him up as quickly as she could. A roar sounded from behind them and they turned. The T-Rex was standing no more than five feet away, triumph glinting in its evil eyes, blood-stained teeth bared in a malicious grin. It let out another roar and headed at them, mouth open. Cindy squeaked and grabbed Jimmy's arm, huddling close to him.   
"Jimmy? I'm really, really sorry for being so mean to you all the time, I didn't mean it," she said quietly.   
"That's okay," he said.   
"And Jimmy?"   
"Yeah?"   
The T-Rex's head was four feet away… three feet away…   
"I… I l-"   
SNAP. 

  


A/N: Ahh! I'm soooo evil! And it's going to take me a while to get chapter 12 typed, too, because I have to make revisions. Only 2 chapters left! Sit tight! 


	12. Explanations

A/N: Here's chapter 12! Only one chapter left, and it's more of an epologue than a chapter. It should be up shortly. Until then, enjoy! 

  


Cindy was cut off in the middle of her sentence. At first she thought that the T-Rex had gotten them, but she realized that she didn't feel dead, so she opened her eyes. And gasped. Things were flying past her at high speeds. Caveman, knights, dragons, covered wagons, disco lights…. Cindy realized that they were going through time.   
With a jolt and a bump, they landed. Cindy gasped. The two of them were in the exact same places as they had been before Jimmy pushed the button. Cindy was holding Humphrey's leash, and Jimmy was holding the time freezer. They stared at each other, totally silent.   
"Dinosaurs?" Cindy asked after a moment.   
Jimmy nodded.   
"Okay, Jimmy, what exactly happened?" Cindy asked. "We just spent days in some kind of jungle place with dinosaurs running around, and now we're back to our own time, where no time has passed, and we have apparently come back without the help of anything." Jimmy was quiet for a moment, thinking. Then he said, "Well, I don't have any certain answers, but I do have a theory. You see, if my theory is correct, the time did work, technically. It froze time, which is how we returned to our own time without any time passing. But for some reason, it also sent us back in time. I knew I shouldn't have used parts from my time travel remote," he added under his breath.   
"You used parts from your time travel remote?" Cindy exclaimed.   
Jimmy grinned sheepishly, causing Cindy to roll her eyes. Then she asked, "So then, how did we come back?"   
"I have my time freezer set to unfreeze time automatically if it wasn't unfrozen manually after seventy-two hours. If something were to happen to me and for some reason I couldn't push the unfreeze button for one reason or another, time would stay frozen forever. If I had an automatic unfreeze, time could go back to normal. We must have been in the time of the dinosaurs for seventy-two hours, and so when time unfroze we were sent back to our own time."   
Cindy nodded, pretending to follow it even though she was somewhat confused.   
"One last question. Why is your ankle back to normal?" she asked.   
Jimmy looked down, noticing for the first time that it was fine and that Cindy's hair bands were back in her hair. He grinned. "I don't know that one, exactly. I'm guessing that anything that happened there doesn't affect now. But that one I'm a little fuzzy on."   
Humphrey began to tug at his leash and whine, sick of just sitting around doing nothing. Cindy noticed and began to walk slowly away.   
"I'd better go," Cindy said over her shoulder. "Humphrey's getting restless."   
"Wait, Cindy?" Jimmy said.   
"Yeah?" Cindy said, stopping and turning around. Hunphrey began to whine again, but Cindy shushed him.   
"What were you about to say, you know, right before that T-Rex almost ate us?" Jimmy asked.   
"Oh, that?" Cindy said, blushing. "Nothing, nothing at all."   
"Are you sure? 'Cause I'm pretty sure I heard you start to say something…."   
"It was no big deal!" Cindy insisted.   
"If you say so," Jimmy said skeptically.   
"I do say so, Neutron. Now can I go? Or are you going to insist on playing twenty questions?"   
"No, you can go, you can go," Jimmy said. Cindy turned again and headed off. Jimmy watched her go, a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach. He shook it off and headed to his lab to fix his time freezer. 


	13. Dear Diary

A/N: Well, here it is, Chapter 13. The last chapter. Thank you to everyone who's read my story! 

  


_Dear Diary, _

What a day! It would take hours to explain it all, so I'm not going to try. Okay, maybe I will. Here's the short version: In literally no time at all, I was chased twice by an actual T-Rex, went for seventy-two hours with nothing to eat but berries and lived through an earth-splitting earthquake. How, you ask? Well, whose fault is it whenever something weird happens? Neutron's, of course. One of his inventions went screwy again (so what else is new?) and transported us back in time, while freezing time here. Then it sent us back home after seventy-two hours because of some automatic time unfreezer thingy. Don't ask me, Jimmy explained it but I didn't exactly follow (quote me on that and I'll deny it, though). I swear, Neutron can be quite the handful sometimes! I wonder how his parents handle him. Then again, he can be sweet sometimes, too. He worried about me when I went out to get firewood and food, and he even told me to be careful and everything. Could the voice be right? Could he possibly… have a crush on me? No, no, of course not! What am I thinking? Still, all the same, sometimes I wonder…. Anyway, all for now. Goodnight, diary. 

~Cindy 

Cindy set her diary and pencil down on the desk, then walked over and looked out the window. Across the street she could see Jimmy's silhouette in the window. He was moving back and forth across the room, probably getting ready for bed. She smiled, remembering how she had watched him sleep in the cave, and how cute he had looked – wait a minute, did she just think what she thought she did? Oh well, it couldn't hurt to let it slip just this once. But no more slipping. She might start to actually get a crush on Jimmy.   
**What do you mean, start to? Don't you already?**   
_Oh, go away! I'm tired and not in the mood to argue._   
**Eesh, fine. You're grouchy when you're tired.**   
Cindy sighed and shut the curtains, then changed into her nightgown. As she slid into her bed she turned off the light, then put her head on her pillow and was soon asleep. 


End file.
